T3Z 



The Great Victory. — Its Cost and its Value. 



\A ''^ 



AN 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT 



CHESTNUT HILL, PENNSYLVANIA, 







JULY 4TH, I 


865, 


• 




BY 




H 


ON. 


M. RUSSELL 


THAYER. 


KING & 


PHILADELPHIA: 
BAIRD, PRINTERS, 607 SANSOM STREET. 
1865. 



^he Great Victory. — Us Cost and its Value. 



AN 



ADDRESS 



DEr.IVKREn AT 



CHESTNUT HILL, PENNSYLVANIA, 



JULY 4TH, 1865, 



Hon. M. RUSSELL THAYER. 



P H I L ADEL P H I A: 

KING k BAIRD, PRINTERS, 607 SANSOM STREET. 

1865. 






IN EXCHANGE 

•""» S ,8,/ 



In ancient Rome the first solemnity which took 
place after a victory was a thanksgiving. The pras- 
tor suspended his judgment in the tribunal. The 
wretched slave was unchained from his bench in the 
galley. Labor forsook its accustomed task. All the 
ordinary occupations of daily life ceased, and the 
people went in processions to the temples of their 
gods to hang their statues with garlands of flowers, 
to salute them with sacred odes, and to appease them 
with sacrificial victims. Then followed the feast, with 
music, dancing and the games. To-day, in a world 
undreamed of by those proud and conquering Ro- 
mans, prepared through silent ages for the abode of 
liberty, we celebrate not only the commencement of 
the ninetieth year of our National Independence, but 
our deliverance from a peril which threatened our very 
existence with annihilation. We celebrate the ter- 
mination of a war conducted upon a scale of gigantic 
magnitude, and the return of blessed peace through- 
out all the land. On mountain and river, on forest 
and prairie, on the crowded marts of commerce, on 
the humming hives of industry, on the cultivated 
fields, on the unredeemed wilderness, on the palaces 
of the rich and the cottages of the poor, on the sea 
and on the land, the calm sunshine of this gracious 



peace pours down ; blessing, rejoicing, purifying, 
elevating, comforting, strengthening the hearts and 
homes and hopes of all men. At such a time we 
would, indeed, incur the guilt of an immeasurable in- 
gratitude and be rebuked by a voice from the ashes 
of that heathen Rome itself if our first thoughts were 
not those of grateful thanks to the Giver of all 
Good for the blessings he has bestowed, and our 
first words those words of humble acknowledgment 
and thankful praise — "Thy right hand and Thy 
holy arm hath gotten us the victory." 

The peace which, under the blessing of Divine 
Providence, hath been achieved, is a peace, thank 
God, not wrung from our fears or built upon our 
dishonor. It is not the result of an iniquitous and 
patched up compromise between good and evil. It 
is not the wretched bargain of time-serving politi- 
cians. It is not the miserable and temporary truce 
where hostile principles shake hands with each other 
for the moment, only to turn and tear each other 
with greater fury than before. It is not founded on 
mere expediency. It is not made in the mean spirit 
which would spare ourselves but ruin our posterity, 
which would save ourselves but destroy our country. 
No; it is a peace snatched from the arms of vic- 
tory. It is born of the fearful struggles of success- 
ful war. It is the triumph of liberty and law. It 
is the assertion of the Nation's right to live. It is 
the just sequel of that great revolution whose suc- 
cessful accomplishment we celebrate to-day. It is 
the vindication of the Declaration of Independence, 
of the Constitution, of the flag of our fathers, of 
the unity of the Nation, of the integrity of our 



country, of civilization, of freedom, of political 
equality, of our honor, our duty, and our privileges. 
The present despotic ruler of France declared, 
among his earliest utterances for the purpose of al- 
laying the apprehensions of his subjects and foreign 
powers, " The Empire — it is Peace," an aphorism 
which, under a grandiloquent phrase, secreted a lie, 
and which, in the light of subsequent events, we 
can see simply meant that his policy would be peace 
until war should become more convenient or better 
adapted to his ends. With greater sincerity, and in 
a higher and truer sense, we may say, "The Repub- 
lic — it is Peace." Its preservation means its power. 
Its power means its ability to enforce respect abroad 
and obedience and order at home. Its power to 
preserve and protect the liberties and rights which 
it guaranties to all depends upon the preservation 
of itself, of its own authority and its own integrity. 
It was for this we took up the gage of battle inso- 
lently thrown down at Fort Sumter. It was because 
we knew that disunion, notwithstanding the cun- 
ning arguments made by the instigators and apolo- 
gists of the rebellion, meant not only loss of public 
honor and private security, but perpetual war, that 
we were content to bear with patience the hardships 
and privations, the burthens and sorrows of the war, 
let it last one year or fifty, rather than surrender 
ourselves and our posterity to anarchy and endless, 
hopeless war. Therefore it was that Abraham Lin- 
coln declared in his first inaugural address, " Plainly 
the central idea of secession is the essence of an- 
archy;" and announced it as his deliberate purpose, 
that he "would, to the extent of his abilitv, take 



care that the laws of the United States be faithfully 
executed in all the States," and that he would "hold, 
occupy, and possess the property and places belong- 
ing to the Government, and collect the duties and 
imposts;" ending with this solemn appeal, "You 
have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the 
Government, while I shall have the most solemn one 
to preserve, protect, and defend it." Oh, great, good 
man ! Oh, brave and faithful servant of the people ! 
how well he kept that oath, sealing it in the hour of 
the great victory with his blood ! 

In order to appreciate properly the peace which 
has come at last, let us remember that the magni- 
tude of the struggle in which we have been engaged 
is only equalled by the magnitude of the results 
which have been attained. The war, although it 
extended over a period of only about four years, 
was waged with an unexampled expenditure of re- 
sources and with numbers seldom witnessed in the 
history of human warfare. The State of Penn- 
sylvania alone, as appears by the official report of 
the Adjutant-general of the State, placed in the 
field- 
In 1861, 130,594 men. 

In 1862, 71,100 " 

In 1863, 43,046 " 

In 1864, 73,828 " 

Re-enlistments, .... 17,876 " 

Total, 336,444 " 

not including the 2,500 militia of 1862. I have not 



at hand the statistics which show the number of men 
furnished by the other States, but it is probably not 
an exaggerated statement, to say that on both 'sides 
there have been engaged in this great contest not less 
than two millions of men. The scene of active 
operations has extended over an area of many thou- 
sands of square miles. The material expenditure 
has been upon a scale of commensurate magnitude. 
During the single fiscal year ending June 30, 1863, 
there were purchased by the Government 174,382 
horses, 86,254 mules, 12,730 army wagons, 3,511 
ambulances, 340,906,893 pounds of oats, 283,940,284 
pounds of corn, 578,113,890 pounds of hay and fod- 
^e""' 95'437>787 pounds of mixed grain. The trans- 
portation by the Quartermaster's Department alone, 
durmg the same year, was, of subsistence stores by 
land 7^4,833 barrels and kegs, 17,654 cattle; of sub- 
sistence stores by water, 4,478,143 barrels and kegs, 
102,914 cattle; of ordnance stores by land, 354,659 
barrels and kegs, 883 guns, &c.; of ordnance stores 
by water, 386,756 barrels and kegs, 1,093 guns, &c.; 
of quartermaster's stores by land, 430,666 barrels and 
packages, 126,584 animals, 2g,:^S'^ tons of forage, 
fuel, &c.; of quartermaster's stores by water, 753,569 
barrels and packages, 109,009 animals, 88,438 tons 
of forage, fuel, &c. There were 1,264,602 troops 
transported during the year by land, and 567,397 by 
water. The amounts paid for the above transpor- 
tation were, by land, $8,030,003.03 ; by lakes and 
rivers, $9,476,681.73; and" by the ocean, $4,798,- 
385.02. There were paid during the same year for 
horse and mule shoes and nails, $286,191.38; for 
medicine for horses and other animals, $39,292.39 ; 



8 

for forges, blacksmith's and shoeing tools, ^90,919.10; 
for barracks and quarters, $2,359,765.66; for trans- 
portation and supply of prisoners, $95,836.47; for 
clothing and camp and garrison equipage, $55,887,- 
505.58. There were purchased by the War Depart- 
ment during the same year, 214,718 cords of wood, 
130,820 tons of coal, (this of course does not em- 
brace the enormous quantity purchased by the Navy 
Department during the same period,) 64 locomotives, 
899 freight cars, 196 medicine wagons, 39,412,889 
feet of lumber, 56,000 bricks, 1,436,566 pounds of 
nails, 2,078,530 horse shoes, 236,288 pounds horse 
shoe nails, 414,700 pounds of leather, 548,044 pounds 
of rope, 17,969 saddle blankets, 4,273 pack saddles, 
235,497 wagon covers. There were employed in the 
Quartermaster's Department during the same year 32 
ships, 42 brigs, 554 schooners, 4 sloops, 72 propel- 
lers, 88 steam tugs, 12 ferry boats, 13 tow boats, 649 
barges, 1,222 steamers; for the earnings of which 
were paid •>i7,788,043.53. 

These figures, taken at random from only a partial 
report of a single bureau of a single department of 
the Government for a single year, convey but an 
imperfect idea of the scale of material expenditure 
upon which this great struggle was carried on. 
During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1863, the 
expenditures by the War Department were $599,298,- 
600.83. By the Navy Department, $63,211,105.27. 
During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1864, the ex- 
penditures of the War Department were $690,791,- 
842.97. By the Navy Department, $85,733,292.77. 
But wc need not dwell upon particulars. We know 



the fact, that the debt incurred during the prosecu- 
tion of the war amounts to about $3000,000,000. 
But this is the smallest part of the sacrifices 
which the Nation has made to defend its life and 
perpetuate in the world the principle of self-govern- 
ment. What shall we say of the thousands and tens 
of thousands of brave men who have laid down their 
lives in our defence, and who sleep in their beds of 
glory from the heights of Gettysburg to the plains of 
Texas. Heroic, self-sacrificing men ! They died for 
the Declaration of Independence, for the Constitution, 
for their country, for mankind. They have conse- 
crated to everlasting freedom the soil in which they 
repose. They stand in no need of our poor eulo- 
gies. Their memory and their deeds will be revered 
while the world shall stand. As he — the last, the 
greatest, noblest martyr of them all — said at Gettys- 
burg : — " The brave men, living and dead, who 
" struggled here, have consecrated this ground far 
" above our power to add or detract. The world 
*' will little note or long remember what we say 
" here, but it can never forget what they did here. 
*' It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great 
" task remaining before us — that from these honored 
" dead we take increased devotion to the cause for 
" which they here gave the last full measure of de- 
" votion — that we here highly resolve that these dead 
" shall not have died in vain — that the Nation shall, 
" under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that 
" the Government of the people, by the people, and 
" for the people, shall not perish from the earth." 

Nor, in counting up the cost of this dread strug 
gle, must we overlook that great army of stricken 



10 

and wounded men who, although they have survived 
the conflict of arms, have returned to us maimed 
and crippled for life. If we shall neglect our duty 
to them and disregard the mute appeal of their 
honorable scars ; if we shall ever cease to treat them 
with that respect and tender consideration to which 
their services and their sufferings alike entitle them ; 
or, if we shall forbear to extend to them that gen- 
erous succour which they need, we shall be alike 
insensible to the claims of gratitude and the demands 
of honor. 

If we turn our eyes to the region in which this 
great convulsion originated, we behold stretched out 
before us the prostrate, desolated South; its resources 
exhausted, its commerce blighted, its agriculture de- 
serted, its industrial interests paralyzed, its internal 
improvements destroyed, its people bankrupt, its 
homes darkened, and the genius of her once fair and 
beautiful domain sitting in silence and tears, and 
awaiting the generous hand which shall soon raise 
her from her humiliation and her grief, and set her 
again in the place of a companion and an equal. If 
the crime was great, who shall sav that the retribution 
is not sufiicient ! God forbid that in the presence of 
calamities so wide-spread and so profound we should 
indulge in any spirit of pride or exultation. 

" Roll not a drum, sound not a clarion note 
Of haughty triumph to the silent sky; 
Hush'd be the shout of joy in every throat. 
And veiled the flash of pride in every eye. 

" Not with TV Deums loud and high hosannas 
Greet we the awful victory we have won, 
But with our arms revcrs'd and lowered banners 
We stand — our work is done !' 



11 

" Thy work is clone, God, terrible and just, 

Who lay'dst upon our hearts and liands this task, 
And kneeling, with our foreheads in the dust. 
We venture Peace to ask." 

But let us turn from the contemplation of the 
sufferings and sacrifices of this great war, to weigh 
the fruits of the victory which the country has by 
the blessing of God achieved. 

First, It has been established once and for ever, 
that the people who dwell between the Atlantic and 
the Pacific Oceans, the Great Lakes and the Gulf 
are a Nation — one and indivisible. That the Consti- 
tution of the United States is the supreme law of 
this Nation ; that this Nation exists, not as a part- 
nership between States, but as a Government "of 
the people, by the people and for the people." 
That State Sovereignty is an idea fundamentally 
and absolutely false and inconsistent with the Con- 
stitution. That it is indeed the "monster" which 
Washington called it in his letter of March lo, 1787, 
to John Jay.* That political sovereignty resides with 
the people alone in their collective capacity, and the 
only organ for its expression in matters affecting the 
National interests is the Constitution and Govern- 
ment of the United States. That all State Govern- 
ments are based upon the principle of unconditional 
and perpetual loyalty to the Government of the 
United States, subordination to its power, and sub- 
mission to its Constitution and laws. That the 
doctrine of secession is a folly and a crime. Nay, 
not only a crime, but, as the history of the war has 

* Jav'"; LitV, vol. I, p. 2i;S. 



12 

proved, the compendium of all crimes. Since the 
formation of the Government, this wicked doctrine, 
the legitimate offspring of the flagitious heresy of 
State sovereignty, has laid in wait to undermine our 
strength and to assault our peace and prosperity. 
General Washington declared in his letter to Con- 
gress transmitting the Constitution framed by the 
Convention of which he was the President, "that the 
greatest interest of every true American was the con- 
solidation of our Union, in which is involved our 
prosperity, felicity and safety." The conspiracy, 
which had for its object the destruction of the prin- 
ciples of the Declaration of Independence and the 
principles of Washington, has met an overthrow 
more complete and a destruction more absolute than 
any which has ever attended any revolution of similar 
pretensions. State sovereignty and secession are ab- 
solutely and utterly destroyed by the war. No 
foundered ship that lies rotting in the soundless 
depths of the ocean is more deeply buried than they. 
Another effect of the war is the total destruction 
of the institution of slavery. The evil spirit which 
vexed us with continual alarms, which poisoned the 
very fountain of our National life, which denied and 
reviled the Declaration of Independence, which de- 
graded us at home and disgraced us abroad, has been 
put to death by the war. It made the war. It per- 
ished by the war. Who now would seek to reanimate 
its revolting corse as it lies blackened and scathed by 
those very flames of war which it kindled for our 
destruction ? It is true, we aimed not originally at 
its destruction. Neither did our ancestors in the 
beginning aim at independence. Even when in its 



13 

arrogance and insolence it laid hold of the pillars of 
the Government and attempted to crush us beneath 
its falling fragments, we were for a long time too blind 
to see that its extermination was necessary for our 
safety. In the opening stages of the war we treated 
with tenderness and consideration the demon which 
was even then drenching the land with fraternal blood. 
But a Higher Power than that of man shapes the des- 
tinies of Nations as well as those of individuals. 

In the proclamation of a fast by the Continental 
Congress in June, 1775, ^^^ °^ ^^^ motives for 
recommending it was stated to be, " to beseech 
the Almighty to bless our rightful sovereign King 
George III., and inspire him with wisdom." 
This was after the battle of Lexington, and 
after the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. 
But one short year elapsed before the Congress 
declared of this " rightful sovereign King George 
III.," in the immortal instrument, the promulga- 
tion of which we celebrate to-day, "A prince whose 
character is thus marked by every act which may 
define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free 
people." In 1775 Congress, in its address to the 
people of Great Britain, said : *' You have been told 
that we are seditious, impatient of government and 
desirous of independency. Be assured that these are 
not facts but calumnies." In their petition to the 
king they declared: "We ask but for peace, liberty, 
and safety. Your royal authority over us and our 
connexion with Great Britain we shall always carefully 
and zealously endeavor to support and maintain." In 
less than a year they affixed their signatures to the 



14 

paper which pledged their lives, their fortunes, and 
their sacred honor to that independence which they 
had thus so solemnly disclaimed. The commence- 
ment of the war and the rapid progress of events 
drove them to conclusions not embraced or contem- 
plated in their original calculations. Does any one 
doubt the sincerity of the Continental Congress in 
their address to the people of Great Britain and their 
petition to the king.^ In his Inaugural Address, on 
the 4th of March, 1861, Abraham Lincoln said: "I 
declare that I have no purpose directly or indirectly 
to interfere with the institution of slavery in the 
States where it exists ;" and his acts and the policy 
of the Government were, as we know, consistent with 
that declaration. Does any one doubt now the sin- 
cerity of Abraham Lincoln when he made that declara- 
tion ? Yet, on the ist of January, 1863, he wrote 
"Abraham Lincoln" at the foot of that imperishable 
Proclamation which declares, "And by virtue of the 
power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and 
declare that all persons held as slaves within said 
designated States and parts of States are, and hence- 
forward shall be free ; and that the executive Govern- 
ment of the United States, including the military and 
naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain 
the freedom of said persons:" adding solemnly, "And 
upon this act, believed to be an act of justice, war- 
ranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I 
invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the 
gracious favor of Almighty God." An English earl, 
the leader of a great party and representative of the 
aristocracy of England, has lately given to the world 



15 

a new translation of the Iliad, which has been much 
and no doubt justly praised. An emperor, also, 
straying into the fields of authorship, has written a 
life of that Caesar who, like himself, overthrew the 
liberties of the people and erected upon the ruins 
of the Republic the standard of imperial absolutism. 
Weigh these labored efforts against the few grand 
words of our beloved and martyred President, and 
say which are the heaviest. Compare them, and say 
which will live the longest. Write them down in 
history, and say which will occupy the largest space. 
Consider which is the grandest, the praise bestowed 
upon the accomplished and titled peer and the impe- 
rial monarch, or the grateful ejaculations of the poor 
slave women of Richmond, who, as he proceeded on 
foot through the crowded streets attended by twelve 
sailors in their round blue caps, recognized the tall 
form and the gaunt and craggy features of the Presi- 
dent, and cried out in passionate ecstacy : " God bless 
you, Massa Lincoln ! Bless the Lord Jesus we have 
seen this day !" 

We shall see that tall form no more. The great, 
good, wise, heroic President has gone to his great 
reward. He who so loved the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, whose strong, clear mind so often and so 
powerfully defended its great principles, whose hand 
so bravely enforced its eternal truths, cannot unite 
with us in the celebration of the day which he so 
greatly revered and loved. Oh, how the heart of 
the people yearns for him to-day: for that care-worn, 
sad countenance, that rugged, manly form ; those 
words of hope, of honest purpose, of high resolve, 
of humble trust in God. 



16 

" Oh, slow to smite and swift to spare, 
Gentle, and merciful and just ! 
Who, in the fear of God, didst bear 
The sword of power, a Nation's trust 

" In sorrow by thy bier we stand, 
Amid the awe that hushes all ; 
And speak the anguish of a land 
That shook with horror at thy fall. 

" Thy task is done: the bond are free, 
We bear thee to an honored grave. 
Whose proudest monument shall be 
The broken fetters of the slave. 

'* Pure was thy life : its bloody close 

Hath placed thee with the sons of light, 
Among the noble host of those 

Who perished in the cause of right." 

In the long history of human affairs individuals 
occupy but small spaces. Generation succeeds gene- 
ration like the waves of the sea. Man goeth to his 
long home, and there be few who, in the retrospect 
of time, are distinguishable from the general mass. 
But while history shall be written, while liberty shall 
find a refuge on earth, the name of Lincoln shall stand 
beside that of Washington. There they are, written 
together ; for ever safe against the assaults of envy, 
malice or detraction. The Founder and the Restorer. 
The man who first gave life and form to our National 
existence, and the man who saved it from destruction 
in the crisis of its fate, and in doing it restored liberty 
and hope to four millions of the human race. 

There are other great results of the war which time 
fails me to enumerate. We have demonstrated that 



17 

liberty is not necessarily weakness. We have consoli- 
dated our strength at home. We have rendered our- 
selves for the first time absolutely independent abroad. 
We are henceforth in a position in which we are not to 
be much affected either by foreign favors or foreign 
frowns. We ask of them nothing but what is right, 
and will submit to nothing that is wrong. Wherever 
our flag floats there are we, in the majesty of our 
triumphant republicanism, in the conscious power of 
our renovated nationality. 

Let us rejoice then at this auspicious day. Let us 
rejoice that the black cloud of war hath spent its fury 
and that white robed peace walks again through all the 
land. This is the day to which our great departed 
chief looked so longingly when he said in his hope- 
ful, trusting way, although all was then still dark and 
inscrutable: "Peace does not appear so far distant as 
it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay, 
and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future 
time. It will then have been proved that among free- 
men there can be no successful appeal from the ballot 
to the bullet, and that they who take such appeal are 
sure to lose their case and pay the cost." 

Let us, who enjoy the fruits of his labors and of the 
labors of the brave men who toiled and hoped with 
him, who struggled and died with him, be mindful of 
the great sacrifices which have been made for the pre- 
servation of our country and the triumphant peace 
which now returns to bless it. Let us value our free 
institutions, not only for the blessings thev bestow, 
but for the great price which has been paid for them. 
So shall our love of country be elevated, ennobled, 
strengthened and enlarged. 



When Charlemagne was crowned at Rome, the peo- 
ple, believing that the Roman Empire had been re- 
stored, exclaimed with shouts of joy, " Carolo augusto, 
magno, et pacifico imperatori, vita et victoria!" Let 
us thank Heaven to-day that after the trials and suf- 
ferings, the darkness and dismay of war, we are per- 
mitted, upon this day, which blends the memory of 
our first great struggle with that of our last great 
deliverance, to exclaim, in a higher sense and with a 
profounder meaning, " Long life and victory to the 
Republic, great, and strong, and peaceful !" 



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